Shops who mislead on sales claims and Black Friday offers could face heavy fines

Retailers have been warned not to mislead customers in upcoming sales including Black Friday sales in the coming months or they could face fines. 

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has told businesses planning their winter sales that they will be watching to ensure sales discounts are genuine and consumers are not misled.

Fines could be as high as €5,000 for retailers who mislead on their discounted prices. 

This announcement follows the introduction of new rules last year on price reductions and comes as many businesses plan their Black Friday and end-of-year sales campaigns.  

Kevin O’Brien, Member of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), said: “A discount must be a real discount and the CCPC will not allow businesses to mislead consumers into thinking that they are getting a better deal than they actually are.

“The Price Indication Regulations set out clear-cut requirements for the use of discounts. Most announcements such as "sales" prices, "special offers" or "Black Friday offers" that create the impression of a price reduction fall within the scope of the rules.”
By law, when a business makes price reduction announcements, they must display the lowest price a product was on sale for in the previous 30 days, and base the discount on this price alone”.

As the enforcement body for these and other consumer protection laws, the CCPC undertakes market surveillance to inform its future compliance activities. The CCPC undertook an analysis of pricing data from a number of websites of businesses late last year and into early 2023.

Speaking about the CCPC’s work in this area, Mr O’Brien said: “Our analysis has shown a number of concerning pricing practices and demonstrated that a number of traders had not yet changed their practices around price reduction announcements following the introduction of the new rules last year.”

Some of the issues the CCPC found included:

not using the lowest price applied to the product in the previous 30 days before the price of the product was reduced,

indicating a previous selling/prior price in a price reduction advertisement which never applied to the product in question,

indicating a recommended retail price only and presenting this price as having previously applied to the product in question.
Specific examples of these practices can be found in the attached document and at ccpc.ie/reductions.

“It is an offence to breach these regulations. Up until now, the CCPC has been engaging with businesses to inform them of their new obligations. Businesses have been given ample opportunity to get their house in order. This engagement phase is now over and sales pricing is now an enforcement priority for the CCPC,” Mr O'Brien said. 

“Our market monitoring is ongoing and we will be particularly active in the coming months as we build towards the busiest shopping months of the year. If we find any offers which mislead consumers, we will be engaging with businesses and taking enforcement action where necessary.”

More details about businesses’ obligations under the Price Indication Regulations can be found in the CCPC’s guide at ccpc.ie/reductions.